Solid GrounD (MxM)

When the Ground Shifts

"Italic speech is talking in Korean." 

Welcome to the second book of the MiMiC series. It is a stand-alone but will likely have some characters appear from the previous story, so I'd recommend reading it first :) 

It was far, far too sunny out for any normal person to want to be outside. He loved Florida's warm weather, but he nearly had to squint just to see some days, and he even had an extremely good pair of sunglasses almost permanently glued to his face. 

"Hey professor, heading home for the day?" 

Austin turned to find one of his students from the class he'd just dismissed about fifteen minutes prior walking up to him. The guy was a genius and a good friend outside of school, but he also tended to get ahead of himself on exams and made simple mistakes. He also had a knack for eavesdropping. 

"Hey Emri. Yeah, heading home in a few minutes since I have no other classes today." Austin replied with a smile as he tucked his bag underneath his arm. 

He always brought his laptop to classes and, of course, the required textbook. Most teachers didn't really use the book for more than a lesson or two, but when he told each of his classes on their first day of whichever history class he was teaching them to get the book, and that it would be used, he hadn't been joking. 

"Thought so. The other history professors wanted me to try and catch up to you so I could pass along a question. They wanted to know if you'd like to go out this evening?" 

Always trying to get me drunk. 

"As much as I'd love to, I need to be home soon. I volunteered the spare bedroom in my apartment for the exchange teacher this semester." 

Emri stared at him for a moment, blinking dumbly. "Wait. You're actually going to allow someone you've never seen, let alone met or spoken to, live in your apartment with you for an entire semester?" 

Yeah, he knew it sounded insane, specifically because he hated people in his space. He wasn't OCD or anything. He liked a good mess as much as the next guy, but he just needed alone time. A lot of it. 

"The dean is paying me." He said, giving up his reason. 

He did get paid okay teaching, but the extra money would definitely help. 

"Ah, well, I hope it's worth it. I haven't heard much about him except that he's pretty young and graduated high school and college early." 

Overly-smart Asian kid. Fun. 

Shaking his head at his own rude thoughts, Austin shrugged. "Can you just let them know that I can't tonight? I'm gonna take a quick walk around campus to pretend that I exercised, then head home and make sure everything's in order when the guy gets there." 

Emri nodded. "Yeah, I'll pass along what you said. It's a shame, though, I was hoping to see the new teacher walking around. They said they would be giving him a quick tour today, but I guess I missed him. You'll have to introduce me to him sometime." 

Of course you're going to want to talk to the genius, genius. 

"Sure, sure. I'll hook you up." Austin replied before giving a small wave and heading toward the back field that stretched out behind the giant art building. It had a pretty nice museum in it with collections that changed every semester or so, but he didn't go too often. He wasn't exactly the best at appreciating pictures when he could barely draw a stick figure himself. 

Now the campus itself? That was a beauty he could happily enjoy. The historical stone buildings that made up some of the lecture halls and dormitories were extremely well kept, but showed their age. Trees that could have easily been standing during the civil war brought shade to students getting a head start on studying for their new classes... or, as it would seem for at least one student, resting in one of the large hammocks supplied by the school.